With protesters outside demanding closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday gave an unambiguous endorsement of the civilian court system to try suspected terrorists, telling UC Berkeley Law School graduates that failing to do so "would weaken our ability ... to punish those who target our people."

"Let me be clear," Holder told the 2013 class of Boalt Hall graduates at their commencement. "Those who claim that our federal courts are incapable of handling terrorism cases are not registering a dissenting opinion. They are simply wrong."

The issue of what to do with suspected terrorists, including 166 languishing in indefinite detention at a U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has once again rippled through the broader public discourse in the wake of the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and left more than 250 injured.

'Enemy combatant'

One of the bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed during a shoot-out with police, while his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured after a massive manhunt, prompting some congressional Republicans to initially suggest he should be held as an "enemy combatant" and possibly face a military tribunal. Tsarnaev, a U.S. citizen, was instead charged in civilian criminal court.

"At times of maximum danger we must always restrain the impulse to implement that which we might think to be effective but, indeed, is surely inconsistent with our ... values," Holder said.

In some respects, his remarks weren't that far divorced from those of protesters outside the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley.

Protesting pot stance

Before Holder spoke, a handful of demonstrators clustered on the sidewalk with large signs, protesting the federal criminalization of marijuana, the continued detention of alleged terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay and the alleged use of torture on prisoners following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

One man in an orange prison-style jumpsuit blasted the federal government for "locking people up and throwing away the key" at Guantanamo Bay.

Mary Ann Thomas of Oakland handed out orange ribbons to denote the orange jumpsuits worn by Guantanamo Bay prisoners. A few steps away, people distributed flyers urging new law graduates to work for a marijuana advocacy group. A plane circled overhead trailing a banner reading: "Holder: End Rx cannabis war."

The target of Thomas' ire was not Holder specifically, but John Yoo, a UC Berkeley law school professor who authored memos for President George W. Bush's administration laying out the legal justification for "enhanced interrogation" techniques, widely derided as a euphemism for torture.

Berkeley law students "are being taught by a war criminal," Thomas said. "We want (Yoo) to be disbarred and prosecuted for war crimes."

Holder, in his address, noted failings of federal policy, including the detention of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II and the use of the aggressive interrogation after 9/11.

U.S. not always right

"Our great country doesn't always get it right," Holder said. After 9/11, "fear and uncertainty drove us, in certain cases, to abandon our values in pursuit of information about those who would do us harm. We used techniques that were of questionable effectiveness, but were certainly inconsistent with who we say we are as a people."

He also challenged the notion advanced by some congressional leaders that it is too dangerous to try terrorism suspects in federal court.

Challenge to critics

"Hundreds are properly, safely and securely held in our federal prisons, not Guantanamo, today," Holder said. "Not one has ever escaped custody. No judicial district has suffered a retaliatory attack of any kind. And no other tool has demonstrated such a robust ability to stop terrorists - and collect intelligence - over a diverse range of circumstances. I defy anyone, on the merits, to challenge these assertions."